The second in our series of selecting the best-quality lenses for your camera concentrates on one of the most highly-anticipated cameras of our time, the successor to the hugely popular EOS 5D Mark II. But by the time it was announced, in early March, it’s probably fair to say Nikon had taken fair amount of interest away by announcing the 36M-Pix D800 and D800E models the month before. Be that as it may, there’s no denying the 22.3 M-Pix EOS 5D Mark III is a remarkably capable camera, and a formidable rival to the Nikon.

Further readings for the Which lenses should you choose for your Canon EOS 5D Mark III?

To provide photographers with a broader perspective about mobiles, lenses and cameras, here are links to articles, reviews, and analyses of photographic equipment produced by DxOMark, renown websites, magazines or blogs.

After evaluating the performance characteristics of lenses mounted on full-frame models such as Nikon D800 and D600, as well as the Canon EOS 5D Mk III, we’ve now had the opportunity to analyze a range of lenses on the Sony SLT-A99. In this concise report, we’ll see how well the combination of Sony’s high-end image sensor and the latest Alpha mount lenses perform.

Comments

Lenses for a D5 Mark III

I will go to HK to buy a Canon D5 Mk II to replace my EOS 450D. I have a very good lens on my 450 (Canon EF28-135mm Ultrasonic). I intend buying to go with the D5 the Tamron 24-70 f2.8 Di VC USD and the Canon 50mm f1.2L or the Sigma 50mm F1.4 USM (if money is tight). I know where I'll know where to buy the camera as I have lived in HK and now live in China. As this is my last big spend on camera equipment, can someone say if the Canon EF 28-135MM, the Canon 50mm 1.2L and the Tamron 24-70mm lenses would be sufficient for my needs. I am just an average photographer who enjoys his hobby.

In camera correction

The 5D Mk iii can correct aberrations, etc with this function enabled and for lenses that it recognizes. Canon also says that with third party lenses one should disable the function because it may confuse a third party lens with a canon lens and apply the wrong correction. I find that tough to buy, but it begs the following questions:1. I assume your tests are with this function disabled. If that's true, and I turn it on, for lenses that it recognizes, does it improve the score?2. After seeing the Sigma prime results, I would like to purchase them, but I'm not happy about turning off the corrections for my Canon lenses. What would you do? Disable the correction?3. I assume if I use DxO optics Pro (about to buy it), that it would apply the corrections in any event- true?Thanks, Bob (everything I do is RAW. Have a 1Dx and am about to purchase a 5D Mk iii)

First replies for this comment

Re: In camera correction

Hello!

Thanks for your interest in DxOMark.

Your assumptions are good:- we effectively disable every correction on RAW to only evaluate lens quality- Optics Pro will correct every lenses listed.- About turning off the correction it is up to you!

Review including RAW conversion

I love your data and particularly value that lenses are reviewed in conjunction with camera bodies. I'm also a user of DxO Optics Pro for several years and sometimes use other Raw conversion products that include Digital Lens Optimization, such as Canon's Digital Photo Professional. Optics Pro and similar lens optimization programming included in Raw converters can make a huge difference in the final image quality of the images processed with them.

I'm frustrated that I can't see the lens performance rating after correction. I realize that's a huge can of worms, but digital lens correction and optimization is an important part of the digital imaging system (lens/camera/software). DxO has had a leadership position in this area for years, an yet I've never seen DxOMark apply its analysis to the corrected images of a lens/camera combination.

Don't you think that this would be very useful? Even if you do a limited sample, I think applying the quantitative analysis would be very informative, particularly when applied to a zoom lens.

I see this clearly in my own photography, particularly with my Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L IS. Without correction, that lens isn't anywhere near the same performance level as my EF 70-200mm f/4L IS or my EF 500mm f/4L IS. It's not even close, but after correction, the results are very good.

First replies for this comment

Re: Review including RAW conversion

Hello!

Thanks for your interest in DxOMark.

It is indeed a very interesting request. For now lens and camera measurements are only performed on RAW. We do not plan in a short future to perform test after raw conversion (our partner (DPReview or Focus Numérique do that).

Please help me understand how the sensor plays into the lens sharpness

How does lens sharpness increase so significantly from the 5DII to the 5DIII when using the same lens? Also, how do the same lens have such higher sharpness score on the D800 vs D7000, which have the same pixel density? Obviously this sharpness number depends on the sensor somehow, but it is not explained.

Re: 5d and 17-40

Nikon D600 vs. Canon 5D Mark III

It will be very interesting when DxOMark publishes it's full D600 recommended lens review (it appears late as it was promised for the end of April?) to see how it performs against the Canon 5D Mark III....since the MP count between those two cameras is much closer than between the D800 and the 5D Mark III.

There is already some early evidence from DxOMark testing that the D600 outperforms the D4, D3, D3s and D3X and is very close to the D800 on certain lenses (for example in the recent Nikon 70-200 f/2.8 VR II review).

I have been wondering if the full DxOMark lens tests with the D600 are going to show that the D600 delivers the best overall value in terms of overall DxOMark scores and sharpness scores. I know I've been blow away by the results I've been getting with my D600 and Nikon 70-200 f/4 VR.

First replies for this comment

Re: Nikon D600 vs. Canon 5D Mark III

I guess you have seen it already. - The cat is out of the sack.- The D600 is definetly on the same level with the D800 and thus outperforms the Canon 5D Mark III.

Best example ist the DxO Mark value for the 85 mm primes. - The D800 and D600 reach values of 40 with the best lenses. - The Canon 5d Mark III's best value is at 35. 5 Points are quite a noticable difference in IQ, I suspekt.

Veeery Interesting!!

Wide and ultra-wide angle prime (fixed focal length)

Hi DxOIn the above article on lenses for Canon 5D MkIII, the comparison table shows the Canon EF 24mm f1.4L II USM as tying 3rd place score-wise with Carl Zeis Distagon T35MM f2 ZE for Canon, yet the note under the comparison table says,"The two top rated wide-angle lenses are moderate wide-angles, followed by Canon's highly rated EF 24mm f1.4 II USM".Is this a purposeful promotion of Canon over the Carl Zeis lens? Could you be bending to corporate pressure from Canon? I was hoping your editorial comments were completely independent.

Re: Nikon vs Canon per-pixel sharpness

Interesting

I'd been shopping for an ultrawide (5d3) for several months, and just last week got the Samyang 14mm. After a few uses, I've found as long as I keep it at f/11 and am careful on the manual focus, I can get very acceptable results. I'll be interested in seeing how the Canon 14mm does. I certainly expect it to beat the Samyang, but it will be interesting to see if it justifies the 6x price difference.

Nikon lenses

Since you've included 3rd party manual lenses, it seems to me you could include some Nikon lenses too - lens adapters are quite common since the rise of mirrorless and lenses like Nikon 14-24/2.8 are widely used on Canon bodies.

Re: Nikon lenses

Keep up the great work!

I'm really enjoying these "Which lenses" articles, particularly this one as I'm a 5D MkIII owner who owns a number of these lenses. The comparison with the D800 is really interesting and it's great to know which lenses perform best on a certain camera. Thank you and I look forward to more articles.

First replies for this comment

Re: Keep up the great work!

Carl Zeiss Makro-Planar ZF.2 vs ZE versions

How do you explain that the Carl Zeiss Makro-Planar T 100 f/2 ZE version on a Canon 5D MarkIII gets higher sharpness rating than the ZF.2 version on a Nikon D800?Aren't the optical designs the same? Or should this difference be attributed to the flange distance only? The last question being true, would a ZE version with the proper adapter, mounted on a NikonD800 perform the same as a ZE on a Canon 5DMarkIII?

First replies for this comment

Re: Carl Zeiss Makro-Planar ZF.2 vs ZE versions

A good question! I just found out the answer.Go to the 'About' drop down at top of page and select 'Lens scores'; this will explain in full. Here's the brief conclusion copied and pasted.

ConclusionAll of these sensor-related factors have an impact on lens performance and cannot be ignored. The very same lens can show differences in image quality performance when coupled with different camera bodies, which is why DxOMark puts in the time and effort to test and publish the results for as many lens-camera combinations as possible.I hope that helps.

Re: Carl Zeiss Makro-Planar ZF.2 vs ZE versions

Hello!

Thanks for your interest in DxOMark.

Between design and real lenses there is always differences !For this case, the first remarks would be that the 2 sensors have very different optical measurements. On one side the Canon EOS 5D Mark III is very efficient, while the D800 is finally slightly disappointing when considering resolving power. The second remark is that vertical sharpness is slightly lower measured on the Nikon mount.

First replies for this comment

Re: your comparison is INVALID

Then what kind of comparison do you want? Do you use your camera and lens separately? They've tested the best lenses available for both systems. Isn't that enough? They've also used the same third party lenses when available for both systems. Tell us why do you think this is invalid...

Re: your comparison is INVALID

Comparing competing Canon and Nikon body and lens combinations is helpful for anyone wanting to choose a system. Comparing high quality, supposedly identical third-party lenses on Canon and Nikon bodies should give a comparison of the capabilities of the bodies. But the Sigma 35mm F1.4 DG HSM A scored 23P-Mpix on the Nikon D800 and 19P-Mpix on the Canon 5D Mk III (4 point advantage to Nikon), yet the Sigma 85mm F1.4 EX DG HSM scored 18P-Mpix on the Nikon D800 and 20P-Mpix on the Canon 5D Mk III (2 point advantage to Canon). This suggests either variations in the copies of the lenses or experimental error.

Commenting on the average scores for third-party lenses that were tested on both bodies would be useful. But comparing averages made up of different lenses (85 on Canon but only 62 on Nikon) could be misleading. The statement “the Canon EOS 5D Mark III occupies no less than 3 positions out of the Top 10” (for Sharpness scores) is highly misleading, because all 3 top scores were on the Canon EF 300mm f/2.8L IS II USM. The longest Nikon prime DxO give results for is the 105mm macro.